Some Lawmakers Want To Ban In-Office Cafeterias

You’re at work and you’re hungry, but due to a possible new law, you can’t eat at work, you HAVE to go somewhere else.

This is happening over in San Francisco. You know those in-office cafeterias – not a breakroom with a couple vending machines, but a full staff that prepares food. It’s huge in the tech industry, which honestly is a staple of the Bay Area.

Google, Facebook, Apple, eBay, all of those tech giants have cafeterias. It’s super convenient for their employees; it makes getting lunch easy, and in a lot of the cases it’s either very cheap or totally free. I know I’d love to work somewhere that provided lunch on that sort of level. Our bosses bring in food trucks now and then, and we’ll have pizza or company barbecues once a month or so, which is awesome – but full daily lunches? Sweet! It’s a huge perk for employees in the tech industry too. It’s a ultra competitive world, and companies want to hire the best. So the companies give the best benefits to attract the best employees.

Some lawmakers in San Francisco want to ban the in-house cafeteria though. They say that it’s actually hurting the economy. The lawmakers say that local restaurants are losing business because of all the tech giants who have their own private restaurants. Nobody is leaving the office to go out to eat since it’s all right there. BUT – the new proposed law would only apply to new construction, which would give the older companies with their already-in-place cafeterias advantage in the competitive market. Also, it’s been said that the in-house cafeterias actually boost employee performance as well. We’ll see what develops from this. Check out some more info about the proposed law here.